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He also found a £70,000 four-bladed propeller, wing skeletons, engine parts, wing cannons, flying instruments, original seats and components.

One of its wings came from a Spitfire that crashed near Exeter Airport and lay for decades in a hedge near a pub until it was salvaged.

Last month, 13 years after the challenge the
gleaming Spitfire took off from the soon-to-close Filton aerodrome
outside Bristol for the first time since the 1940s.

Flying through British skies for the first time since the 1940s: The restored Spitfire over Bristol

Taking off: The gleaming aircraft attracted large crowds to Filton airfield near Bristol

Martin Phillips in his workshop pictured with a Spitfire tail plane, for his next project

Determined: Martin Phillips was challenged to build his own Spitfire by friends who gave him just one rivet of the aircraft for which he had to find the rest

FILTON - THE HOME OF THE BRISTOL AEROPLANE COMPANY

Filton has been synonymous with aviation development since before World War One when the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company set up a flying ground there in 1911.

The firm developed the iconic Bristol Fighter and the airfield was used by the Royal Flying Corps during the war.

Between the wars, the firm became Bristol Aeroplane Company and built aero engines, while Hurricane fighters were based at Filton.

During World War Two, BAC expanded massively, producing the Bristol Blenheim and Beaufighter, two medium-range twin-engine bombers.

Spitfires were also based at the grass airfield for a time following heavy bombing of Bristol.

After the war, Bristol continued to develop planes, by now branching out into commercial aviation and extending the concrete runway to cater for larger airliners.

Filton's crowning glory was arguably its role in the development of Concorde, in the 1960s and 1970s, by now under control of the British Aircraft Corporation. Pictured above is the famous supersonic passenger jet visiting the airfield for the last time in 2003.

In 1977 BAE acquired the airfield and it was recently used to produce the Bae 146 small airliner.

Mr Phillips, who owns the Spitfire, said the expensive and painstaking restoration project with his 50-strong team had been worth it.

He
said: 'Many times I thought the project wouldn't ever be completed. But we never gave up the ghost.

'The Spitfire is something that makes
Britain a great nation. I am humbled that 18-year-old kids went up in
them and died in them.'

The occasion was a poignant one as
Filton aerodrome was decommissioned by BAE after more than a
century of aviation there. It closed on December 31.

BAE
Systems, which said the site was no longer economically viable, is
selling the airfield for housing and business development.

Crowds
of aviation and history enthusiasts lined the A38 road which borders
the airfield to watch the Spitfire take off, while BAE staff watched
from beside the runway.

They
were also there to see the last visit to the airfield from the Airbus
A380 superjumbo, which was developed at Filton and is the world's
largest commercial aircraft.

Mr Phillips said: 'To see her take to the skies today has been extraordinary, for it to happen at the same time as an A380's final visit to Filton,
has made this a sad but historic day.

'I think it's a terrible shame that this famous old airfield is to close.'

Former Rolls-Royce engineer John
Hart, who has worked as chief engineer on the Spitfire restoration for
the last two-and-a-half years, said seeing the Spitfire and the A380
together on the runway that is also still overlooked by Concorde was
'quite a sight' for aviation enthusiasts.

He said: 'It's funny to think the last aeroplane to be put together here at Filton has turned out to be a Spitfire.'

Filton
aerodrome, which has one of the longest and widest runways in the
country, witnessed the first test flights of Concorde and was where
American soldiers injured in D-Day were taken to before being treated at
Bristol's Frenchay hospital.

The West Country's aviation industry grew up around the airfield, which developed an international reputation.

Devoted owner: Exeter businessman Martin Philips spent £1m restoring the Spitfire after it was found 10 years ago in a junkyard

Preparing for take-off: Aeroplane enthusiasts lined the runway to watch the WWII fighter plane take to the skies